Benefit Magic Ink Jet Black Liquid Eyeliner might not be that magic?

Liquid liner, is always that little bit more fiddly than a pencil liner but I love how it makes any look ‘chic’ instantly.

My favourite type of eyeliner is the refillable pen sort. Shu Uemura, Shiseido, Aube Couture, Maquillage – various brands make these. Second favourite is the none refillable pen sort. I’ll go into more details about these later but they are almost impossible to get wrong.

Packaging is fab as always and since Benefit is good with these ‘one off’ type products I had high hopes…Uh-huh it’s an ink well. I’ve just realised writing this post I have a disgusting amount of liquid eyeliners. To be honest, Lancome Artliner and L’oreal Super Liner fulfils most of my needs but I can’t help looking for new improved ones!

Magic Ink is a very rich, very black pigment. It’s quite thick, and you must take the excess off before application. It takes a little while to dry but it’s not impossible to remove so you can correct your mistakes.

The brush is like this – like I said, you must take the excess off before applying it, as you can see the brush is quite a loose one – I prefer something more tapered for a controlled and quick application.

Benefit advises using the liner to dot lots of little dots across the eyelid then join them together for a slick line.

This is the ink – you can see how gorgeously dark and black it is, but also very rich and thick. In reality this is problematic – a very dark pigmented liner that is thin and dries quickly is easier to work with then anything too gloopy.

Now I was told I could use this on my waterline too. I did the upper lid as directed and attempted it on my water line – disaster! It does NOT stay on the waterline, it stings like a mother, and it left lots of little black bits in my eye (see below!). In fact very few liquid eyeliners can be used on the waterline (I know that Ishizawa Tearbaby can be, and Koji 1 day liner too).

Also I found the result bitty and the liner itself too thick and gloopy to be used as a every day liner. It took a while to dry and you can see in the photo that the line is not perfectly smooth – it was pretty tough to even out.

Verdict:

There are pros and cons to this liner – on the plus side, it is beautifully pigmented and richly coloured and once it’s on, it lasts quite well. The cons are that it’s a bit too thick for me, it takes a while to dry, it stings if it gets into the eye and the brush is not ideal for a precise application.

In truth I can’t recommend this knowing there are plenty of better ones out there. I know…let’s have a hug.

Comments

How disappointing! It looks like it would be too messy a liner for me to use when in a rush in the morning, I can only imagine the mess I would make lol Plus the black bits it leaves in the eyes, definitely not a good selling point!